Buck Attack

LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – A couple were seriously injured yesterday when a deer they were trying to shoo off their Clinton County property attacked and gored them, authorities said.

“This was like the one-in-a-million deer on the one-in-a-million day that wasn’t going to get shooed,” said Steve Wilcox, one of two state troopers who shot and killed the deer after in rural Lamar, about 10 miles southwest of Lock Haven.

Linda Yost found the seven-point buck blocking the back door of the home she shares with Frank Rishel when she tried to feed their cats in the morning, according to the Express newspaper in Lock Haven. She alerted Rishel, who went outside to chase the deer away.

Instead of being frightened, the deer repeatedly charged Rishel and knocked him to the ground. Yost called police and went outside to help, only to be attacked herself.

Wilcox said he and State Police Cpl. Todd Brian could hear Yost screaming when they arrived in separate cars a few minutes later.

The deer was on top of Yost, attacking her on the ground, while Rishel lay motionless about 10 feet away, Wilcox said.

“They were chest to chest, and the deer was goring her in the face,” he said.

Brian hit the buck with his hand. When the animal lifted its head, Brian shot it in the neck.

Wilcox fired a few more shots as the deer ran toward him, killing it, he said.

Rishel, who Wilcox said is in his 60s, and Yost, who he said is in her 50s, were rushed to the emergency room at Lock Haven Hospital. Officials there would not release any information about the couple.